Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Preparations

Esther stood beside Jace’s bed, a slow grin spreading across her face.

<Trixna,> Snowy said from the other side, sniffing the slight depression in the mattress.

The woman had already assumed as much and didn’t blame either orc for finding comfort in each other during the night.  Though, if she had to guess, the female had likely been the aggressor.  Esther wouldn’t be shocked to find Jace still clothed beneath the sheets.

Her room faced east, and though it was still a few moments from dawn, the brightening sky had woken her early.  Last night the orc priestess had shown her how she could manipulate the magical ward on her window to control how much of the weather and light got through.  She hadn’t adjusted the opacity of the magical shield, knowing she would want to get an early start today, but it was nice to know she could sleep in going forward. 

Jace had plans; she just didn’t know what they were, and waking early gave her time for a warm bath before the day started.  Now she wore her standard black dress, still missing her armor, but trusting that Jace would get it back.

He stirred as the game woke him up.  To him, it had only been a second since he had selected the “Rest until dawn” option for the second time after Trixna had woken him.  Her nightly visit let him know that the rest of the NPCs had free reign while he was out, and the game played through their choices and actions in a split second while he slept.  He wondered what Esther had been up to during that time but didn’t have to wonder long as he opened his eyes and found her standing over him.

He sat up, startled, and urgently rolled to his left but saw he was alone in bed.

“She must have gone back to her bed without waking you,” Esther replied knowingly.

Great, Jace thought.  Trixna thinks I’m sleeping with Esther, and she thinks I’m sleeping with the orc.  He shook his head, having no time to worry about potential jealousy among his housemates.  Snowy was there too, and she jumped up on the bed and gave Jace a morning wrestle.  “Good girl,” he said quietly.  “I hope you don’t judge me.”

<Hungry,> the wolf informed him, caring nothing for whom he shared his bed with.

“Good,” Jace said in response.  “I have a job for you.  I need a goblin.”  He had several reasons for placing goblin spawn points around his stronghold.  He hoped they had worked during the night.

<Food?> Snowy asked.

“No, I need him alive and mostly unharmed.  Can you bring one back to me?”

The wolf looked dejected.  Jace rolled his eyes and sighed.  “Fine.  You can eat one and bring another back here, mostly unharmed.”  He then took the wolf’s face firmly in both hands.  “And no fire mages this time.”  Jace had set his spawn points to make level five fighters specificaly, but a stray goblin could have wandered onto his property.

Snowy barked an affirmative, leaped off the bed, and ran out of the room.  Jace finally pulled the covers back and got out of bed, confirming Esther’s assumption that he was still wearing his kilt.  Jace had plans to change that as he wanted more clothing options and hoped to raid some of Orgalph’s wardrobe.

“Do you have a mission for me?” Esther asked.  “Do you have a plan to free Gracie and Conor?”

“I do,” Jace said.  “And I do need your help.”

One of the ancillary benefits of his private stronghold was that Jace could now talk to Esther, and the Germans back in Chicago wouldn’t be able to hear a thing.  He explained his plan to Esther, and she frowned as she didn’t see much combat in her future, but she nodded and promised to get it done as quickly as possible.  Once she was gone, Jace walked over to the corner to find a few alternate clothing options.

“Did you sleep well?”

Of course, Trixna would choose this time to walk in when he was naked and changing.  He tried not to act embarrassed and allowed the game mechanics to dress him instantly.  “I woke up for a few moments in the middle of the night,” he replied as he found a leather tunic and arm protectors.  “But the interruption wasn’t too intrusive.”  He finally turned around and was happy to see the female was wearing the outfit he had found for her last night.  She could have just as easily been naked or in her nightgown from before.  So far, his celibacy was something she was willing to wait on, not forcing the issue.  Jace was grateful for the little things.

“I slept very well,” she said, walking over to him with a frown.  “I liked your old outfit.  Now you look like . . . him.”

“Most of the time, I will look like this,” Jace replied and activated his necklace.  In a flash, he looked up at the orc in his human form, unable to ignore her generous curves from this angle.

“I could get used to this if I must,” she said with a sly smile.  “I just want to leave the past behind me.  Do I have a job for today also?”

“Unfortunately, I need you to stay out of the way for a while.  I will have guests in a few hours who will happily kill anyone they see.  Likely me if I am not careful.  Once they are dealt with, we can worry about making this cavern a proper home and finding you your own room.”

“I like staying with you,” she argued.

“And I think you need your own room,” he replied.  “We can talk about it later.  Right now, I have work to do.”  Jace started toward his door.

“And I am supposed to spend the day in here?”

Jace frowned.  “For now.  Please trust me.”

Jace left his room and walked over toward the dining hall.  It was empty, with no sound coming from the kitchen.  He didn’t wholly understand the eating patterns of NPCs yet.  Esther was hungry after a battle, especially if she took injuries, but he saw no indication she had eaten breakfast this morning.  He assumed the gnomes would find their own meals below, and he needed to find a diplomatic way of pressing them into service once he got a larger group of NPCs living here that would require regular meals.  Esther would be on her own for the next hour or so and had enough money to fend for herself if she got hungry.  He expected she would steal anything she needed, but that would be difficult in a restaurant.

Food isn’t why he was here.

“Gracie,” he said once he had taken a seat and rested his elbows on the table.  “I have a few questions?”

{Fire away,} she said, seemingly alert.  Even though she had spent all this time sitting in an office chair or sleeping in a bed, it had easily been as stressful for her as for him.  He felt refreshed and ready to go, but she must be exhausted.

“Talk to me about occupations.  That seems like a cheap and easy way to get boons and feats.  Is it as simple as just picking one and getting its benefit?”

{It depends on what you want to do.  I didn’t think you would be contemplating occupational choices right before a battle against some of the strongest players in the game, but you haven’t exactly been making predictable choices.}

“What do I have to do to become a bounty hunter?” Jace asked, ignoring the jab.

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{I figured that would be your choice.  You just go to your options screen, navigate until you find the occupational portion, and select it.  You get to pick one starting feat, and that is it.  If you fail to collect a bounty or the game doesn’t think you are trying, you will lose the occupation and the feat, but it should give you a couple of days.  You can’t have more than one occupation at a time, and you need to get to level three to make it permanent.  You start at level 0 and must perform your occupation once to get to level 1.  In your case, that means you need to collect one bounty.  Once you do that, the game gives you more leeway. 

{You can monitor player-created bounties on the settings screen, but most towns also have game-generated bounties.  Gandhi will spawn generic bounties for monsters and thugs around most cities that will scale to your level, so if the player-generated choices are too difficult or unattainable, you still have options to exercise your occupation.

{It might take several days to collect your second bounty and even longer for your third, but the game forces you to upkeep your occupation to keep its benefits.  Each level requires you to double the number of bounties you collected.  So, two for level two, four for level three, eight for level four, and so on.}

Jace nodded, following the logic.  He remembered that Esther was a level 37 Escort and tried not to think of the numbers.  “But I get to use that feat right now, even though I haven’t collected any bounties?”

{Yes, the game gives you the gift of a free feat to help you get started.  This is especially helpful for craftsmen who can take the crafting feat.  Once you get to level three, you get another feat, and again at level six.  Getting to level six means collecting 32 bounties; for a bounty hunter, that is a lot.  For a craftsman, that isn’t much, but the game forces them to craft better and better items, or they only get partial credit.}

Jace was now looking at his inventory screen and scrolling through the options with a specific feat in mind.  “How does Trap Setting work?”

{Interesting choice,} Gracie said.  {Most bounty hunters pick a combat feat.  Since you changed your key ability to Constitution, you won’t get another combat feat for a while, but trap setting can be good with your strategic mind.  Once the Germans saw Esther leave the cavern, they went upstairs to get food, so if you have specific questions you don’t want them to hear, let me know.}

“It looks like I can make physical or magical traps, and I get a +5 for their construction.”

{Something like that,} Gracie confirmed.  {To make a physical trap, you need basic ingredients like metal, wood, and bait.  You roll and add your crafting ability, which is 0, and your Trap Setting feat score.  Remember, you can take the feat more than once to stack.  When you are not in combat mode, you can take a full round, six minutes, and get a free 20, so you will have 25 points to spend on your trap.  You can use those points to increase the damage it does, make it harder to see, or make it harder to disarm.  The trap level equals the occupation you used to get the ability.  Rogues can also take the Trap Setting feat, which is tied to their player level.  Your traps will be level 0, meaning they will cause no damage, need a disarm roll of 0, and be visible with a perception check of 0.  For each level of the trap, those stats go up by three.}

“And magical traps?” Jace asked.

{Then, you need a magical device to put a trap on.  For example, you can put a trap on one of Trixna’s fire wards, so they hurt someone if they stumble upon them.  You can cast a spell into a weapon or item and then trap it to release that spell when specific criteria are met.  You have many options, but your traps won’t do much damage at level zero and will be very easy to see or disarm if anyone tries.}

“I understand,” Jace replied.  Still, he chose the Trap Setting feat and closed off that portion of his inventory.  “I also wanted a summoning totem, like the one that kobold shaman had.  Is that possible?”

{Yes,} Gracie replied, {but we will have to wait for your next level.}  Now, she looked through his stats.  {You are a little over 300k experience.  You still have a long way to go before you get to 500k.  You took a lot of shortcuts early, but now reality will set in.  Though, knowing you, I wouldn’t be shocked if you got to 12 in a few hours.}

“Killing a PC who is at a higher level gets me enough experience to move up one level, right?”

{It gets you the difference between your current level and the next one.  You only need about 180k to get to level 11, but the difference between 10 and 11 is 250k, so you would get that.}

“So, I could get to level 14 if I killed Drescher and his friends?”

Gracie laughed out loud at him.  {Keep dreaming, Jace.  But no.  If you isolated them and completely left combat mode between each kill, you would go up a level each time.  But they won’t let that happen.  Every player knows that splitting the party is a bad idea.  They will stick together, and if your fantastical plan goes off and you manage to kill all four of them, it will be in the same combat session.  You don’t level up until you leave combat mode, so you would still be at level 10 for each kill and only get 250k for each.}

Jace frowned.  Still, that would be level 12, which wouldn’t be too shabby.  “I guess that will have to do,” he said, pushing himself up from the table.  “Thanks for the information.  Now I’ve got work to do.”

 

---

 

Gracie took her headphones off and stood from her chair, taking several moments to stretch her tired limbs.  She walked over to her brother lying on the couch, which was the extent of the leash handcuffed to her ankle.  She required assistance from one of her guards if she needed to use the bathroom or check on Jason.  Conor was in and out of consciousness.  She was used to setting up IVs on players in the chair in the corner but had rigged up something suitable here too.  Jason was doing fine.  The medical equipment beside his chair beeped and hummed in rhythm, ensuring the player had all the fluids and nutrients he needed.  Sleeves on his legs and arms even provided electrical stimuli to keep his muscles from atrophy.

Conor was in much worse shape.  His fever was still high, and the IV she had set up could barely keep up with the sweat his body produced.  What little Gracie knew about medicine was tied to keeping players stable in the game.  She had no idea how long Conor could continue in this state, and she felt horrible having to rely on the generosity of Drescher to send a nurse.

As that thought went through her mind, she heard another voice upstairs.  The Germans had become bolder in leaving her alone.  With her access to the outside world removed, the only thing she could do was talk to Jace, and he wasn’t equipped to contact anyone either.  She could have sent him to Safe Haven, but that would have taken too long, and she was never left alone for more than a few minutes.  It had been almost five now, but soon the visitor’s identity was made clear, and another man came downstairs.

He sounded French, not German, and had a medical satchel.  Her two wardens pointed to the couch.  From the stairs, he couldn’t see if anyone was lying there, but once the nurse circled the leather furniture, he found his patient.  Gracie stepped back and found her chair.

“He is bad,” the man said in a thick accent after only a few seconds of examination.  “He needs a hospital.  He has lost a lot of blood.  I can keep him stable, but only for a little while.”

“Just do your best,” Frans said.  “From what I hear, it will not be too much longer.”  He kept watching the medic work as he treated the gunshot wound and gave Conor a couple of injections.

Hans turned to Gracie.  “There.  Your beloved brother has a nurse.  Now tell your friend to arrange the meeting.”

The nurse looked up as if seeing Gracie for the first time.  “Did you do this IV?” he asked as he prepared to swap the bag with one of his own.

She nodded.

“It’s an expert job,” he replied.  “You saved his life.”

“Enough talk!” Hans shouted.  “Go tell Jason or Jace or whomever he is to set up this meeting, and we can all be done with this.”

Gracie smiled despite the situation.  It was nice to know they were also at their wits’ end.  They might make a mistake.  She looked to the screen and saw Jace working with the gnomes.  They were creating pockets in the stone around the perimeter of the audience hall.  They made holes at 12, 3, and 9 O’clock.  They were designed to be big enough to hold the shaman’s totems and were all well over 50 feet apart yet covered the entire 100-foot diameter.

“Clever,” she said to herself.  After the pockets were completed, the gnomes magically crafted stone in front of the holes, so the totems were sealed off from the rest of the cavern, but Jace could still cast inside them.  It might have gotten out that Jace was a stone shaman, but if Drescher and his people looked for the totems, they wouldn’t find them.  She looked at the Germans to see if they were paying attention, but they were watching the nurse.  They wouldn’t have understood what Jace was doing anyway.

As she put her headset on, she saw Snowy run into the room with a goblin in her mouth.  What are you doing? She thought to herself.

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